• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, October 2, 2008

Hachette Filipacchi Media has struck a deal with Quattro Wireless that puts the latter in charge of external ad sales for Hachette's mobile sites. It covers the mobile sites of Car and Driver, Elle, ElleGirl, ElleGirl Latina, Premiere and Woman's Day. The deal follows Quattro's recent redesign of the sites, reconfiguring them to make them easier to use for mobile subscribers. Hachette is switching its business to Quattro from Third Screen Media.

Yaron Oren, the director of mobile strategy and operations for Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., remarked: "We have established HFM U.S.' properties as leaders in the mobile space over the past two years, and we're aggressively pushing to keep building our mobile business." In addition to Hachette, Quattro handles external ad sales for mobile media sites CBSNews.com, NFL.com and TMZ.com.

Although magazines have embraced mobile distribution and ad sales, they still contribute only a small proportion of most publishers' bottom line. Nonetheless, the future looks bright for magazine mobile initiatives--partnership with magazines is widely seen as an important way to achieve more precise ad targeting, as magazine subscribers may volunteer personal information that mobile providers are prevented from sharing by privacy policies.

All You Launches Book Club

All You, a Time Inc. title that is sold exclusively by Wal-Mart, is launching a book club targeting female shoppers, encouraging participants to form their own local clubs to discuss the books recommended by the magazine. Reader reactions to the first recommendation--Sandra Kring's "Thank You For All Things"--will be published in the October 24 issue. The club will be promoted in the magazine and with displays in 1,200 Wal-Mart stores around the country.

AARP Celebrates 50th Birthday

October 1 marked the 50th birthday of Modern Maturity magazine, the official publication of the American Association of Retired People. The magazine has changed identities several times since then, only to arrive back where it started at age 50--perhaps paralleling, ironically but unintentionally, the lives of some of its readers. The first issue contained no outside advertising and carried articles like "Stop Worrying About Baldness," "Tranquilizers," "Young Is a Circumstance," by Frank Lloyd Wright, "Getting a job in Maturity."

Fletcher to Maxim

Brekke Fletcher is moving to Alpha Media's Maxim as managing editor. Fletcher previously served as managing editor of Wenner's Men's Journal. Before that, she worked for two years in the same capacity at Jane. Fletcher is the latest in a series of Alpha hires of former Wenner employees, including Jim Kaminsky, who now serves as editor of Maxim. The trend was started by former Alpha CEO Kent Brownridge, who was brought in by Quadrangle Capital in June 2007 to lead Alpha's acquisition of Maxim, Stuff and Blender. Brownridge left Alpha in August and become general manager of Northern & Shell's OK!